Wth is "croup" and why wasn't it around in the 80s?

One of my children gets croup a lot. Likely because his airway is more narrow than average. He has been hospitalized for it and the one time it was so bad, they discussed having to intubate him (which is super rare and almost never something they have to do for croup). Thankfully, we were able to avoid that. We generally go to the ER at he first barking cough because of his history. They give him decadron and recemic epinephrine. He can usually get away with just 1 dose of decadron and 2 epis now that he is a bit older, but when he was younger, he would often get 2 doses of decadron and countless epis (again, very rare). For most kids, croup is just a mild thing that is kind of annoying. But every now and then, a child has more difficulty with it. As he grows, it should get better. Asthma and croup are sometimes related, as they are both reactive airway diseases (asthma is just a different, lower part of the respiratory system).

I have one child who almost never gets sick, but when he does, he gets croup. He'll get a mild cold, and the next thing we know he's barking like a seal in the middle of the night and unable to catch his breath. 12 hours later, he'll be perfectly fine with just an occasional cough.

He's been on steriods for it once or twice, but the times since then if we can calm him down and get some ibuprofen into him, he'll get through the night and be okay the next day. Warm showers do help. He's four.

His younger sibling has asthma and gets super wheezy whenever she gets a cold, and is more sickly in general, but has never had croup.

Anonymous wrote:Thanks everyone, OP here. We have an appointment with a pediatric pulmonologist to get my daughter evaluated just in case. My concern is that she had croup 4 times within a 6 month period, the last 2 bouts both in October. She gets the runny nose for 24 hours, then the stridor and breathing difficulties with barking cough that night. Steroids have been effective. She also get croup without being around any other child with croup, so it appears to be her typical reaction to a cold virus. We are getting it checked out just in case, but I am glad to hear there are cases of "just getting croup" without necessarily having another underlying condition.

If it's any encouragement to you, my now 4 year old had croup 15 times by the time he was 3. Any time he had a runny nose or any time it was damp/rainy. He has not had to go on any medications and has had croup 2 times in the last year. So, I think it's possible that a kid can be probe to croup and out grow it. I'm interested to hear what pulmonologist has to say.

Good luck!

My son is 13 months and has had croup for times! I'm getting concerned.

Ours is one of those kids who gets croup a lot. No allergies or asthma or wheezing. The hot steamy shower helps, as do the humidifier and exposing him to blasts of cold air in the middle of a coughing fit (like the freezer). We're hoping this will end around 5YO, as the pediatrician has predicted.

On the plus side, he has never had strep or ear infections (so far, knock on wood).

My son was like that. Nearly every cold started with croup, and ended with him having coughing fits when he ran around or got too active. We started giving him nebulizer treatments whenever a cold morphed into the the coughing fit stage. After a day or two of that, he was fine. Now, at almost 4, he is finally starting to have colds that don't necessitate the nebulizer. And although he did have croup a month or two ago, it didn't even wake him up.

I think I have one of those kids.

My kid used to get croup with just about every cold/cough. Seal barking at night especially, and during naps, between the ages of 2 and 4 (before that he didn't ever really have a cough). This winter he is almost 5, and for the first time I can remember, every single cold isn't a croup-watch. It was apparent in the Fall that he had outgrown it. My understanding was that his little airways were just too small to handle colds well. Now they're marginally bigger, but big enough to stop the croup phenomenon.

It was never serious. We sat up with him and did steam sometimes, a humidifier other times, and gave Claritin etc... We did get a steroid syrup once because I pushed for it (albuterol). I can't say it helped a lot, and we don't think it was allergies. Certainly not asthma.

2 kids, oldest gets croup a few times a year (she is almost 5) and youngest (who is almost 3) has had mild croup a couple of times. For us the steamy bathroom helps a little, taking her into the cold night air helps a lot, and letting them suck on a popsicle both calms them down (a popsicle at 3 a.m.! Cool!) and gets some cold into their throat which can help symptoms also. We usually give a dose of steroids the second we hear the barky cough because she gets bad stridor, but we've never had to go to the ER. Cannot wait until she outgrows it. But I also wonder if she has RAD because when she gets bad coughs she coughs until she throws up, and we had to use a nebulizer during the last bout.

3 kids, no croup. Ever. And my oldest had bad allergies when she was younger (under 3).

My husband just took my three year old to he ER. She was having a lot of trouble breathing. She has had croup already three times, but this was the most severe. She woke up not being able to breath very well. I thought her cough sounded croup'y but I was nervouse. So I had my husband bring her to ER (we also have a 2 year old, so is stayed home, thank god for iPhone!!). So I strated reading up on the diff between asthma and croup, the visibil diff is the barking cough.. Croup is difficulty breathing in (stridor) and asthma is difficulty breathing out (wheezing) --.. She has had a cold symtoms for a few days. I would rather her have coup, she will eventually grow out if it...

My son has been getting bouts of croup since he was about 2. We are up at 4am now with it and he's 7. I am hoping he will grow out it but it hasn't happened yet. He has been diagnosed with allergies to cats, eggs, pollen and ragweed, but never with asthma. We do have an inhaler but one doctor has told us that it's not very effective because the problem is in the throat not the lungs. I've found that the best treatment is to immediately go take a ride in the car with all the windows down. The cold night air helps greatly. Also I had to teach my son to calm down because the panic makes it worse. Almost like having a panic attack and asthma attack at the same time. Once he's calm we do a couple squirtschloroseptic for the soreness from all that barking, and a strong cough syrup to ease the cough so he can sleep. His symptoms usually start with a light cough during the day and last maybe 3days.

What doesn't work for us is steam treatments. We use a cool mist humidifier. Also he had them far more frequently when we lived in charlotte with all that pollen, whereas now that we're in the arid desert of AZ most of his allergy symptoms and croup have gone away. Hope that info helps someone. Those first couple bouts with a toddler can be very scary.

My poor DS has croup tonight. He is 5yo, and I think it's unusual that he hasn't outgrown it yet.
Thanks for the freezer air suggestion.... If he wakes up crying & barking again, then I'm going to try it with him.
Thank ou!

My 2.5 year old has had 6 bouts of croup, 4 needing Emergency care. He is given dexomethozine(?) every time. He actually had his worst bout last night. We took him to the er, he was give two masks and dex for 3 days. I really hope he grows out of it soon.

my son is 2.5, has been to daycare since 3 months old and has never had croup.